In the field of electric utilities there is a need to monitor the status of various aspects of an electrical distribution grid in order to avoid power outages, overloads, and other issues. Currently this may be accomplished through the use of a monitoring system having distributed transmitters located on various network distribution feeders.
Typically, in such a monitoring system a transmitter and sensors are installed at a voltage carrying power line distribution point to be monitored, and a receiver is placed at the network substation (it should be noted that references to a voltage carrying power line refer to cables used for voltage, without mandating that the cables actually carry voltage at all times). The transmitter periodically transmits data, received from the sensors, to the receiver at the substation, through the voltage carrying power line. At the substation, the signal sent by the transmitter is detected by the receiver from the voltage carrying power line. The receiver, which may be part of a computer system further comprising a microprocessor, decodes the signal data and stores the data. A computer system comprising the receiver may also be used to perform various signal data processing to obtain a variety of monitoring functions.
These monitoring systems, while effective, often have from several limitations that result from the signals being transmitted via the voltage carrying power line. For example, the distributed transmitters, generally, blindly transmit their signals through the voltage carrying power line, and as a result frequently interfere with one another, thereby preventing their reception. Furthermore, transmissions via a voltage carrying power line can be disrupted by interruptions in the voltage carrying power line itself (for example from the opening of a breaker at a substation). An embodiment of the present invention seeks to remedy these limitations by providing a method of using an antenna assembly proximate to the voltage carrying power line to permit the transmission of data to and from various points along an electrical distribution grid.